One day students are picking out an outfit for the first day of school, and the next day second quarter is complete, and we are selecting courses for the following year.
Indulge me for a moment, but I would be remiss if I did not mention that little piece of Americana we call the Super Bowl. Admittedly I am a Patriots fan, but I think there is much to learn from our home team, and it is more than their success.
They are playing in their 8th Superbowl since Tom Brady took the helm in 2001. Consider this, there are 32 teams in the league and 13 have never won a Super Bowl, four have never even participated in one, and one team, Buffalo, has lost four (sorry, Ms. Knight).
Their best player, and the face of the franchise during this timespan is Tom Brady. One would assume his success was pre-ordained. Not so much. First of all, he shared QB duties during his tenure at Michigan. That's right; Tom Brady was not the sole starter in college. Further, he was an afterthought on NFL draft day, selected in the 2nd to last round as the 199th pick, so not only was the best quarterback of all-time drafted after 198 players, but thirty-one NFL teams passed on him multiple times.
He is the only quarterback to win five Superbowls, and he is now widely considered the best quarterback of all-time. But not for an injury to the starting QB, Drew Bledsoe during the 2001-2002 Patriots season, Tom Brady may never have played a full season in the NFL let alone be considered the best of all time.
The takeaway? Prepare for your opportunity and when it arrives seize it. Opportunity, often, arrives at the intersection of hard work and preparation. Preparation does not mean Tom Brady practices until 2 am, nor am I implying you should do homework until 1 am. Sleep is preparation.
Bill Belichick is widely considered the best coach of all-time. It is worth noting he failed in his first foray as a head coach. He received a second chance with the Patriots and seized the opportunity. His less than thinly veiled attempt to hide his disdain for some of the inane questions posed by journalists is perceived as arrogance, but if you listen to Bill Belichick, he only uses the pronoun "I" when accepting blame for something that might, or might not, be attributable to him.
Otherwise, it is "we need to do better,' or "we did this well." Further, when talking about player contributions to the team effort, he never prizes or elevates the superstars. Solidifying an unstated philosophy that everyone's contribution is significant. A philosophy we subscribe to at CCHS.
Otherwise, it is "we need to do better,' or "we did this well." Further, when talking about player contributions to the team effort, he never prizes or elevates the superstars. Solidifying an unstated philosophy that everyone's contribution is significant. A philosophy we subscribe to at CCHS.
It might be surprising to the casual fan, or the individual who never played, but football is equal parts cerebral and physical. Football is about team, continuous improvement, constant refinement, precision, execution, and real-time adjustments based on the circumstances before you. All things we can learn from.
To paraphrase a recent Tom Brady remark, "what are you going to give up to be the best that you can be?" What an excellent question to consider. For students, I would suggest giving up the phone. Canceling the wireless plan is probably asking too much, but I would wager students are spending more time on their phone than they realize, or are willing to admit. Leave the phone behind when studying, when at the dinner table, when driving, and talk to the friend next to you instead of texting a selfie to the ones not present.
To be clear, I am not advocating for students to choose professional athletes as role models. In all probability, your role model is the one you take for granted. Your mom and/or dad for going to work every day, for selflessly giving up a career to support you, or a grandparent who lived an admirable life.
Maybe a CCHS staff member serves as your role model. All are great examples of potential role models; however, if you are going to select a professional athlete to emulate choose one that values hard work, team, humility, and one who wins and loses with class.
If you are going to select an athlete as a role model, Tom Brady is a pretty good one. Go Pats!
Course Selections
By Brian Miller
It is now time to choose your courses for next year. Please log into Aspen by Tuesday, February 6 at 11:59pm to select your courses. If you do not make your requests by Tuesday, this may reduce your chances of getting the courses you want.
All of the necessary information can be found on this site:
Please connect with your guidance counselor or IT if you have any questions.
Challenge Success
By Leslie Knight
Thank you to everyone who attended our first Parent-Teen Dialogue Night! We had over 70 participants discuss topics including sleep, grades, tutoring, and college application pressures. We ended the evening by brainstorming words, phrases, and actions we can take to reduce our stress and the stress of those around us.
The Challenge Success steering committee is still poring through all the ideas and feedback from both the faculty meeting and evening event on the topic. Ideas from the brainstorm and lessons learned from these events, as well as our next steps, will be posted soon on our CCHS Challenge Success website: www.concordcarlisle.org/challenge-success
On the heels of our community conversations talking about sources of student stress, last week students in grades 9-11 spent time during their Advisory period working on planning and time management. Students received a list of courses with their anticipated weekly homework averages, as well as a time management worksheet. All students were encouraged to use these tools to help them see how much they can realistically take on for next year. You can find a copy of the documents on the Course Selection page of the CCHS website: www.concordcarlisle.org/course-selection/
We strongly encourage all students to spend time planning out how much time their commitments require and to be thoughtful about selecting courses for the 2018-2019 school year.
In February 2015 Piedmont High School junior Teddy Staley wrote an opinion piece “Scheduling, It’s Not a Competition” for the Piedmont Highlander:
“As students, we want a challenge and that sometimes we secretly aspire to impress people with the classes we take. But it’s not worth struggling in a class we knew we would hate, just to be proud to tell people we’re in honors.”
Read his entire piece here.
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| Photo by Greg Coan |
Lexington Arts & Crafts Society Student Exhibition
Above is a photo of the work or our students currently displayed at the Lexington Arts and Crafts Society. It looks amazing under the gallery lights!
This is an annual regional show featuring work from Lexington, Bedford, Waltham, Burlington, Minuteman Tech, Arlington, and Winchester. Mr. Pickman had this to say about the experience, and the students work. “It was a lot of fun to install, and the society threw a little party at the end for the artists. The work from each high school was really strong this year, however, in my humble opinion, our work stood out due to the clear artistic voice of our students.”
The following students were represented:
Digital Arts
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Painting
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Photography
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Ceramics
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Ava Smith 2019
Cooper Meyer 2019 Abbie Dalicandro 2019 Edward Feather 2020 Dante Karman 2019 Kori Barach 2021 Ben Lindner 2018 Chris Lombardi 2020 Will Mara 2020 Max Carnathan 2018 Andrew Nicoll 2019 Isabel Sierra 2018 Aidan Thorp 2021 |
Sandro Lopresti ’19
Maddie Lamothe ‘18 Ava Lublin ‘20 Glyn Mardis ‘19 Henry Johnstone ‘19 Grace Jennings ‘19 Daphne Baldoumas ‘18 Naima Joachim ‘20 |
Caroline Canally
Gretchen Carr Hannah Clough Morgan Cramer Evie Amor Lila Hempel-Edgers Sara Hoover Avery Little Molly Materson Lara Speer Kassidy Trant Annabelle Perez de la Cruz Eleni Dunbar Sola Stacey Emmy White Jonathan Rolfe Julia Jacobs Madi Green |
Alyssa Stainton
Rachel Stoppe Vy Vo Silas Gramaglia McKenzie Campbell Ruchi Naidu Nancy Jin Cat Easterday Alice Barrett Jackie Bernstein Maddie Gage Pheobe Meyerson Kendall Eaton |
Music Awards
We are incredibly proud of these highly motivated and talented students. This distinction is one that not many high school students achieve and is a result of their dedication to their craft and their progression through the District and State audition process. A thank you and a hearty congratulations to David Gresko and Deb Smith. Please take a moment to congratulate all students and when you see them!CHORUS
Elizabeth Fineberg (soprano)
Lucy Joseph (soprano)
BAND
Clara Hoey (timpani)
Marisa Ih (clarinet)
Eleanor Kuchar (clarinet)
Amar Ruthen (trombone)
ORCHESTRA
Alexandra Hoey (violin)
Carly Paris (violin)
Rebecca Pasley (double bass)
Jeffrey Zhu (cello)
2017 USTFCCCA High School Cross Country Coaches of the Year
Congratulations to Hanna Bruno on being selected Coach of the Year. One boys coach and one girls coach received the honor from each of the 50 states and the District of Columbia. Congratulations, Hanna.
CCHS Hydroponic Project & Woods Hill Table
The students did a magnificent job today presenting as to why the Woods Hill Table should partner with Pathways for the Hydroponics project. Their knowledge and expertise were greatly appreciated by the owner and the executive chef. As a gesture of Goodwill students presented the manager sprigs of herbs grown from the most recent Hydroponics Harvest. At the conclusion of a presentation, the students were provided a tour of this completely Organic Farm to Table restaurant. Here's the future collaboration!
Thanks to the generosity of the Parents Association, CCHS students are enjoying their first harvest from the hydroponic farm. Special thanks to CCHS teachers, Tom Keane and Ray Pavlik for making this excellent opportunity available to students in our Pathways Program.
Carlisle Mosquito Article
Carlisle Mosquito Article
Justice Fair at CCHS
On Monday, January 8th, CCHS hosted its 4th annual "Justice Fair," where students in Dr. Nurenberg's two junior honors English sections presented the culmination of month-long research, writing, and activism unit. Individually or in groups, 48 students engaged in research on a self-chosen issue of injustice that they feel affected them personally, including taking some form of personal action on the issue, and then presenting their experience to a larger community.
Topics included combating food insecurity, improving neonatal health outcomes, support, and awareness for dyslexic students and seeking equal funding for girls' athletics. Student acts of activism included making videos that they spread on YouTube and social media, organizing fundraisers, writing letters to their representatives and volunteering at hospitals.
"I wanted students to understand that the skills we are learning in ELA don't just serve them in a classroom setting," said Dr. Nurenberg, "but can be lifelong tools for advocacy, for making the world at large, or just your own personal world, a better place." I big round of applause for Mr. Nurenberg and his students.
CCHS & CMS Students Volunteer For a Cause
By Seeta Durvasula
This fall we had six CMS 8th grade students and one CCHS student volunteer with the South Sudanese Enrichment for Families Saturday Bridges Program. The program brings together Sudanese children, parents, local students, volunteers, and professionals for enrichment programming during the academic year.
Luisa D'Ambrosio, Amanda Kiefer, Meera Durvasula, Shivani Durvasula, and Ambika Joshi worked with pre-schoolers providing pre-literacy and early literacy support. Abby Bodenrader and Carina Hosford worked with infants providing care while their parents participated in life skills workshops or personalized tutoring. Aliya Hosford (CCHS) volunteered with providing outdoor experiential education for elementary students at Drumlin Farm.
SSEF is very grateful to the students that committed their time and energies to this program for five Saturday afternoons. Many of our students have expressed an interest in continuing to work with the Saturday Bridges program again this spring.
CCHS Improv Club
Thanks to the hard work of CCHS science teacher and Improv Club adviser Ryan Palmer, and to the talented and passionate improv students, we held our first annual improv show in the Black Box Theater. The club has been meeting since April of last year, and the students have worked hard to be ready to perform for an audience.
Improv is a form of theater where the performance is made up on the spot. Aiden Bolio, Ben Clarke, Heloise Evins-Mackenzie, Izzie Francis, Nick Gallant, Alexis Kirkpatrick, Sophie Purinton, and Clem Tarpey made up the team, performing improv games such as Blind Freeze Tag, Last Lines, Radio Show, and 4 Square. They did an incredible job, and performed with the confidence of seasoned improvisers. If you missed the show, don't worry! The club is growing every day, and a second show is already in the works. If you are interested in trying improv yourself, the club meets Fridays after school in the Rivers Room from 3pm - 4:30pm.
Jeffrey Zhu Recording
By Owen Curtain
Recording this music with Jeffrey Zhu was an absolute pleasure and a great example of how we use our amazing facilities to support great art. I am very thankful for the opportunity to work here an be part of this community. I hope everyone enjoys his performance as much as I have.
Jeffrey Zhu-Cello
Sayuri Miyamoto, Piano
DVORAK Cello Concerto in B minor - Allegro
FAURÉ Après un rêve
Red Cross Club
By Kasey Stewart
Our Red Cross Club raised $1,719.91 at our gift wrapping fundraiser this year. We appreciate that SEARS at the Burlington Mall, once again, allowed our club to have our gift wrapping fundraiser at their mall entrance the last two weekends before Christmas. Our club members wrapped as fast as they could to raise as much money as possible. We noticed that people were very generous with their donations this year, including a fireman from Burlington who, like last year, slipped another $100 bill into our donation jar. These generous donations enabled us to send another helpful check to The American Red Cross. We really appreciate these donations and found this to be a rewarding experience in a lot of ways.
Pictured are all of the club members who helped make this possible: Brooke Smith, Anna Shulman, Anna Synakh, Sarah Hoover, Colleen Boyle, Alyssa Stainton, Whitney Orloff, Zoe Jackson, Alden Harring, Lillian Keefe, Chloe Shudt, and Kasey Stewart.
Sarah Hutchinson In the News
Senior Sarah Hutchinson was recently selected by the Girl Scouts of Eastern Massachusetts to attend the 13th annual Massachusetts Conference for Women, a nonprofit, nonpartisan gathering of 11,000 female leaders that communicates and promotes the influence of women in the workplace and in society. Please follow the link to learn more. Congratulations, Sarah!
Rivers & Revolutions Information Session
By Tracie Dunn
Last night we held an informational gathering for people interested in learning more about Rivers and Revolutions. Thanks to all those who attended. If you are curious about joining Rivers and Revolutions for a semester, or you want to learn more aboutBy Tracie Dunn
- the curriculum
- the difference between taking it in your junior year or senior year
- the difference between fall and spring semesters
- how this semester will fit in with the rest of your high school education
- what colleges think of the program
please email tdunn@concordcarlisle.org or migoodwin@concordcarlisle.org
Also, you can visit the website below.
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